Ohio's high court denies stay of execution for condemned killer

The court denied death row inmate Robert Van Hook’s motion today without additional comment. He was sentenced to die for fatally strangling and stabbing David Self in Cincinnati in 1985. His execution is set for July 18.

Van Hook had filed a motion seeking the execution delay while he pursues a challenge in a lower court to Ohio’s adoption of its lethal injection protocol.

Prosecutors argued Van Hook knew of the legal challenge over the lethal injection policy as early as 2009 but waited until last month to seek the stay. They argued delaying the execution this late in the process would “constitute an abuse of the justice system.”